Ketchikan police, DEA seize nearly 1 pound of heroin

KETCHIKAN — Police and federal Drug Enforcement Agency agents seized nearly a pound of heroin from a Ketchikan home and arrested a resident.

Travis Straight, 38, was charged Thursday with attempted drug misconduct. The Ketchikan Daily News reports his bail was set Friday at $50,000.

DEA agents intercepted a package mailed to the home, and with Ketchikan police, used a warrant to search the residence, Ketchikan Police detective Charlie Johnson said.

They seized nine-tenths of a pound of black tar heroin, Johnson said, which carries a Ketchikan street value of more than $200,000.

The heroin arrived as 14 individually wrapped 1-ounce bags, Johnson said. Such packaging, he said, likely means the heroin would be distributed to lower level dealers to avoid the attention that would accompany hundreds of visitors coming to one house for short periods at all hours of the day.

Assistant District Attorney James Scott asked for “extremely high cash bail” and suggested the $50,000. Scott said he hadn’t seen that amount of heroin in Ketchikan in his 13 years in the prosecutor’s office.

Heroin is a problem in Ketchikan, he said. Dealers caught recently had money to afford relatively low bail and went back to selling before their cases were resolved.

“This happened three times in the last year,” Scott said. “We didn’t get high enough bail, they went right back out into the community, and they went right back to selling drugs before we were even able to resolve their first case.”

District Judge Kevin Miller told Straight that a conviction could mean a 10-year sentence. Straight told Miller he had no money for an attorney and that he receives food stamps and other government benefits.

Public Defender Katrina Larsen said the court should not swayed by defendants in other cases. She said Straight was not a flight risk.